South Korea

D

1

Traditional Forms

South Korea has a rich oral tradition consisting of lyric folk songs, shaman chants, myths, legends, and folktales. Korean folk songs are diverse and numerous. They include ceremonial and work songs as well as popular songs about everyday life. “Arirang,” one of South Korea’s best-known folk songs, has numerous variations.

Lyrical or narrative, folk songs are accompanied by lively and emotive music played by percussion instruments such as drums, cymbals, and gongs; and the oboe (a double-reed wind instrument). One type of traditional song, the p’ansori, is a lengthy narrative that runs through several episodes and can continue for several hours. Accompanied by the beat of an hourglass drum, p’ansori is both spoken and sung.

Ritual shaman music accompanies chants that are intended to induce a trance state in the shaman (mudang), a religious figure who is thought to commune with spirits. The mudang ritual performances rely heavily on dance and music, as well as colorful costumes and other props.

Formal types of music and dance were first performed for the royal court of the Silla kingdom, and succeeding dynasties continued this tradition. Today various troupes perform court music and dance. Types of songs include the kagok, a long lyrical song, the kasa, a slow narrative song, and the sijo, a musical rendition of Korean sijo poems.

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Sandae-guk (mountain performance) is an improvised masked drama that features complex dances drawn from shamanism and songs based on folk music. Originally developed for the royal court, the form lost favor with the Chosŏn rulers in 1634. Thereafter it gained great popularity in rural areas, employing satire and bawdy humor to criticize the ruling class. See also Asian Theater.

D

2

Western Forms

Western schools of music and dance are a more recent tradition in South Korea. The National Dance Company, founded in 1962, embraced modern dance and classical ballet genres. In 1973 the National Ballet Company was formed out of the National Dance Company, which then focused solely on modern dance. A private ballet company, Universal Ballet, was established in 1984. European modern ballet and American ballet styles, such as the neoclassicism of George Balanchine, became influential in the late 1980s. Modern dance has followed Western styles, including the highly expressive style of Martha Graham, introduced in South Korea in the 1960s, and a playful and satirical French style introduced in the 1980s. The Changmu Dance Company has pioneered experimental dance forms.

E

Cultural Institutions

The Seoul Arts Center is the national performing arts center and houses five resident companies: the National Opera, the National Ballet, the National Chorus, the Seoul Performing Arts Company, and the Korean Symphony Orchestra. The center features five state-of-the-art facilities: the Music Hall and Calligraphy Hall (both opened in 1988), the Art Gallery and Arts Library (1990), and the Opera House (1993).

Several museums are located in Seoul. The National Museum, founded in Seoul in 1945, has an extensive collection of Korean archaeological, cultural, and folklore artifacts. Branches of the museum are located in eight other major cities. Seoul is also home to the National Museum of Modern Art, the National Folklore Museum, and the War Memorial Museum.

The National Library of Korea, headquartered in Seoul with branches throughout the country, houses a collection of more than 4 million volumes. The libraries of Seoul National University and Yonsei University each contain more than 1 million volumes, including important Korean archives.

V

Economy of South Korea

South Korea’s economy was traditionally based on agriculture but experienced extraordinarily rapid industrialization beginning in the early 1960s. After the Korean War (1950-1953), economic aid, especially from the United States, was important to the economic recovery of the country. Subsequently, the government of South Korea gave priority to the development of manufacturing, which was driven by export-led growth. In the span of a generation, South Korea grew from one of the world’s poorest countries to one of its most promising industrial powers.

Since the late 1980s, the government has allowed market forces to determine economic development. Previously, the government had exerted strong influence through a series of five-year economic plans, which had promoted industrialization. To achieve the goals of these plans, the government directly intervened in the economy by offering strong incentives to businesses, regulating foreign exchange, and implementing highly centralized fiscal policies.

South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by more than 9 percent yearly between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s. By the mid-1990s economists referred to South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan as Asia’s “Four Tigers” because they rapidly achieved high economic growth and a standard of living among the highest in the world. Nevertheless, South Korea was one of many Asian countries that suffered economic decline during a regional economic crisis in 1997 and 1998. During the crisis, several of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, called chaebol, went bankrupt and collapsed.

The economic crisis highlighted underlying structural weaknesses in South Korea’s economy. Close links between government, banks, and chaebol had allowed the conglomerates to borrow heavily from domestic financial institutions to help them finance high-risk investments. In consequence, the chaebol accrued extremely high levels of debt. The collapse of chaebol, which created a high incidence of nonperforming loans, caused havoc in the banking sector. Meanwhile, the value of the national currency plummeted, losing more than half its value by the end of 1997, and inflation and unemployment soared.

In December 1997 South Korea accepted one of the largest aid packages ever arranged with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The terms of the aid package required South Korea to pursue economic reform, including restructuring of the corporate and financial sectors. The South Korean government transferred government-owned assets to the private sector, opened the domestic market to more foreign competition, and required chaebol to lower their debt-to-equity ratios. The country’s economy recovered in 1999 and sustained growth into the early 2000s. In addition, South Korea repaid all its IMF emergency loans by mid-2001.

In 2005 South Korea’s annual budget figures showed revenues of $168.4 billion and expenditures of $184.1 billion. The GDP in 2005 stood at $787.6 billion.

A

Labor

In 2005 the total labor force was 24 million. Of this figure, some 8 percent were engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; 27 percent in industry; and 65 percent in services. Women make up 41 percent of the labor force. The principal labor organization is the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, with a membership of about 1.5 million.

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